Dublin Scioto High School students conduct walkout in response to ICE

Amory, a pseudonym, first became aware of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement surge in Columbus, dubbed “Operation Buckeye,” in mid-December. But it wasn’t until ICE agents apprehended Leonila González at the intersection of Emerald Parkway and Hard Road less than half mile from where Amory is enrolled at Dublin Scioto High School that the reality of what was taking place really hit home for the freshman, who chose to remain anonymous out of fear of school repercussions.

“The first time I heard about [ICE] being around the school was on Friday, Dec. 19 … when I was getting text messages from a friend that [agents] were nearby,” Amory said, describing how the rumors of the detention spread among the student body even as administration officials downplayed the proximity of federal operations. “I asked my mom to contact the school about it, and they were claiming that nothing was going on and it was business as usual.”

Dublin City Schools superintendent John Marschhausen told the Columbus Dispatch on Dec. 19 that the district was aware of rumors circulating related to federal law enforcement activity at or near Dublin Scioto High School but that no such incident had taken place. In the same report, Marschhausen also told the Dispatch there had been a traffic stop on Emerald Parkway, but it wasn’t near the school and did not involve a student. (Neither Marschhausen nor Dublin Scioto High School principal Thomas Cochran replied immediately to an emailed request for comment from Matter News.)

Amory said that in response to what they described as the administration’s lack of transparency related to the incident, more than 100 students at Dublin Scioto High School formed a group chat in late December to discuss how to best respond, culminating in the decision to conduct an academic walkout around 9:45 a.m. following second period today (Tuesday, Jan. 6). According to Amory, the students were supposed to be joined in the walkout by community supporters including State Rep. Munira Abdullahi, who Amory said was not yet present on site at the time of publication. (Abdullahi did not immediately reply to an email from Matter News seeking comment.)

In addition to the walkout, the students also planned to provide school officials with a list of demands on Tuesday that includes: the release of an administrative statement promising officials will do everything in their power to stop ICE from disrupting the Dublin City Schools community; asking the district to provide informational packets available upon request to students and designed to educate them of their legal rights related to ICE; and the immediate conducting of school assemblies district-wide to discuss topics such as the legal protections students have when approached by ICE, along with the details of González’s arrest roughly a half mile from DSHS grounds.

“Hopefully people won’t just think, ‘Oh, you’re a bunch of teenagers messing around, trying to cause trouble. Because that’s not what we’re doing. We’re actually trying to bring awareness to something we all care about, and something we feel is unjust,” Amory said. “It does make me feel like we at least have some power in this situation, and that we do have a voice and people will listen to it.”

González, the mother of a 15-year-old Dublin Scioto High School student, was stopped by ICE agents on Emerald Parkway near Hard Road just before10 a.m. on Dec. 19, and the footage of her arrest began circulating heavily on social media shortly thereafter. (A GoFundMe launched by supporters to reunite González with her family has since raised more than $15,000.) In the clip, officers can also be seen detaining a second woman, Daisy Romero, who was present watching as ICE officers surrounded González’s car and then moved to intervene.

“I rolled down my window and I said, ‘What was the reason for the stop?’ And they said, ‘You can keep going on your way. You’re free to go,’” Romero said by phone in early January. “So, I put my car in park, I got out of the vehicle, and I approached the car behind me, which was Leonila’s. And then the two cars behind her were ICE officers. And I said, ‘Why did you stop her? Do you have a warrant signed by a judge? Is there a reason you stopped her?’ … And then one of the [agents] comes toward me aggressively and tells me, ‘If you don’t get in the car, I’m going to arrest you.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, arrest me.’”

Romero, born and raised in Riverside, California, said she spent nearly 12 minutes detained by ICE agents before a Dublin police officer arrived on the scene and released her from the handcuffs.

“And I asked [the police officer], ‘Isn’t there anything that can be done? This was a person taken for no reason and put in an unmarked vehicle, and they didn’t have a warrant or even give a reason why she was being stopped,’” said Romero, who in the weeks since the incident has spoken with González in federal detention, as well as González’s teenage daughter, who continues to struggle in her mom’s absence. “I think she’s still in shock, and she’s distraught, because her life has totally changed. … She’s an only daughter, and now the father is scared to leave the home, because if he leaves, she’s going to be left by herself.”

While González’s Dec. 19 arrest did not take place on Dublin Scioto High School grounds, Romero said students both in the district and across the city have been impacted by the ICE surge, calling attention to the presence of agents around multiple Dublin apartment complexes that are home to myriad students, in addition to the arrest of González and its material impact on her daughter. 

“One person who attends school in that district, her life changed in December,” said Romero, who went on to note how communities of color have been forced to keep their guard up in navigating the city over this last month. “My son is the same color skin as me, and he has Hispanic features, and if he wants to walk down to Kroger or over to Bridge Park, I’ve been taking him. And those are fears we have now as parents. … People who don’t look like white Americans have all been affected. … It doesn’t matter if you’re documented, undocumented.”

Amory said the actions being undertaken by ICE under the current Trump administration have resonated heavily with them because the motivations are so out of step with the ideals the country has long professed to embody. “It’s literally in the Pledge of Allegiance: ‘With liberty and justice for all,’” Amory said. “And we haven’t really lived up to that basically since the country was founded. … But I feel in recent times we’ve been taking steps backwards with human rights overall, and especially with immigrants. … I don’t understand where we draw the line, like, oh, if you’re in this generation you are an immigrant, but in this generation you aren’t. Really, if you trace it back far enough, we’re all immigrants.”